p. 77: The division of the labour of camping amongst four gave us all some leisure at night, and I found time to read through again The Cloister and the Hearth and Westward Ho! with much pleasure, quite agreeing with Sir Walter Besant’s judgment that the former is one of the best historical novels ever written. There are few more attractive roysterers in literature to me than Denys of Bergundy, with his “Courage, camarades, le diable est mort!” This matter of winter reading is a difficult one, because it is impossible to carry many books. My plan is to take two or three India-paper volumes of classics that have been read before, and renew my acquaintance with them. But reading by the light of one candle, though it sufficed our forefathers, is hard on our degenerate eyes.
Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled: A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska.
- 1913-18 US Private Journeys round the Coast and Interior of Alaska (Hudson Stuck, “Archbishop of the Yukon”).
- Arctic Reading: United States
English Writings about the New World,
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 38: At least by the nineteenth century, most expeditions of exploration considered a well-stocked library an essential component of their cargo. Obviously, those in ships could afford a greater tonnage; just how many men on Franklin’s two land expeditions hauled books and charts over portages and across the tundra remains a nice question. Certainly, when the first expedition was reduced in the fall of 1821 to a straggling line of men marching back from Bathurst Inlet to the hoped-for refuge of Fort Enterprise, a copy of Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from the Prince of Wales’s Fort, in Hudson’s Bay, to the Northern Ocean, the only book then available about the region, remained part of the load. The party of twenty men lost their way more than once. Were they consulting the charter in the inferior but lighter-weight octavo edition of Hearne’s book, issued in Dublin in 1796? It would have made a more logical traveling companion than the larger quarto first edition (London, 1795). Yet the map in the octavo showed Hearne’s return route across the Barrens differently from the first edition’s map. The discrepancy could have confused Franklin, whose men suffered more than one delay, and contributed to the number of deaths. Certainly, the matter of a book’s size bears materially on this dramatic possibility.
Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 106-7, on the influence of Lieutenant Richard Marks as an evangelical in the Napoleonic Wars who as minister expanded seaboard services on Nelson’s Conquerer including reading of Sunday prayers, a ship’s choir, and on arrival at home ports: Marks obtained Bibles for every mess, and several hundred tracks for distribution. (Henceforth, he seldom went between decks ‘without seeing some of the crew reading them.) He also organized a ship’s library of evangelical books, with over 150 subscribing members.
The Bibliographical Miscellany.
- 1812-13 British Naval Expedition in Northwest Passage Search (commanded by Thomas Button aboard Resolution).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
The first three numbers of this journal deal with the North-West Passage and the 1612-13 voyage of Sir Thomas Button.
Old Whaling Days.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 59: Conclusion—Advice to Apprentices. NOW if any youth, who is intending going to sea, should read this rough sketch of the life of an apprentice, I would advise him to be very careful how he enters upon his duties. He should be civil to everybody and dutiful to his officers, doing his best to gain their good-will by performing what he is told, cheerfully. When he is set to do anything, do it quickly with a good grace. Nobody gains ill-will so soon as a sulky, grumbling boy. I will vouchsafe to say at the end of a long voyage a civil boy will be respected. Do not listen to the yarns of some men. When they wish you to stay, leave at once, and begin some trifling job, also improve your mind with reading, and your spare time in learning navigation. When the men see you are superior in education to them, they will treat you with respect. If a poor fellow cannot write, proffer to write his letters for him. It will cost nothing, and he will send a letter to his friends, otherwise he would neglect doing so, and I can assure you that he will befriend you in some way or other. Help those who are not so well educated as yourself, and do not taunt them because they are not so, although there are not so many now as formerly who cannot write.
Scott’s Last Biscuit: The Literature of Polar Travel.
- Arctic Reading: General
Polar expeditions have created a literature with its own history and style, and "The Frozen Ship" is a detailed and moving examination of the most intriguing and influential journeys into the eternal ice. Sarah Moss delves into the morbid fascination of expeditions that went terribly awry and the increasing interest in those that were rescued at the last minute, and she pays particular attention to the desire to find and even preserve long-lost explorers. Some of them, like Ernest Shackleton, Richard Byrd, and Roald Amundsen, have become iconic figures, while others, as important in their day, have faded into obscurity. Here, like wayward travelers, they are rescued heroically. (ABEBooks, from Strand entry)
The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore 1698-1701.
- 1699-1701 English Naval Expedition (Edmond Halley aboard Paramore).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
[Note]: Halley retained the confidence of the Admiralty, and his second cruise from September 1699 to September 1700 was successful. He went south as far as 52° into the ice field north of the site of the modern Halley Bay Geophysical Observatory and was in considerable danger, as he was later from a storm off the coast of Africa. (ODNB)
Antarctica’s First Lady.
- 1946-48 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Primarily an account of the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947-48 in which she accompanied her husband. Based largely on her diaries of that period, she is a staunch defender of Ronne’s leadership, dismissing his critics as merely bitching about his more disciplined Norwegian regimen. The complaints are taken as inevitable and nothing was done to contain them, here or on his later IGY expedition. There is nothing here about reading, even in her chapter on the long winter night where one usually finds some mention of antidotes to boredom. What a contrast to Walton’s book below.
Diary of the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic Regions 1901-1904.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Wilson was a prodigious reader. In addition to the citations below he speaks often of readings on medicine or surgery, presumably technical books he had with him on the expedition. He was also a devout Christian and would read his services when he couldn’t attend or in addition to attendance. Most notable was his reading of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” during the fatal polar trip.
Northern Regions: Or, A relation of Uncle Richard’s Voyages for the Discovery of a North-west Passage.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A serious account of four British expeditions intended to introduce children to the excitement and uncertainties of Arctic travel, without sparing the more gruesome aspects of exploration (death, storms, cannibalism, etc.) Good and accurate descriptions of amusements aboard, and relatively balanced accounts of the “savages.” The expeditions are Parry I, Franklin I, Parry II, and Cochrane’s overland journey to Siberia.
New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Regions
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Volume I:
The Cruise of her Majesty’s Ship “Challenger.” Voyages over Many Seas, Scenes in Many Lands.
- 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
This round the world voyage was epochal including a visit to the Kerguelen Islands in Jan. 1874. It experienced some polar conditions but not many. It never wintered over, the best time for library use.
Journal of a Voyage to the Arctic 1901-02. S S Discovery.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Duncan was a civilian shipwright from Dundee who helped build the Discovery and joined the expedition as an able bodied seaman when the ship was completed. He served as carpenter and in other construction projects (e.g., the Wind Mill) and sometimes as cook, and returned with the Morning after one year. His spelling is phonetic at best (or was it the typist’s?) so that proper names become an interesting puzzle as presented in this transcript. When at sea the journal reads much like a deck log but there is some more substance in the entries made ashore. Here are a few examples of his journal style:
A Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions in His Majesty’s Ships Hecla and Griper in the years 1819 & 1820.
- 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 142, Saturday. Oct lst 1819, long passage on scarcity of candles as darkness approached.
Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 25-26: In July 1838 the Admiralty sanctioned the supply of libraries to sea-going ships. Large ships were issued with 276 books, small ships with 156. The books were mostly religious or of an ‘improving’ nature. Various societies and private individuals also contributed. As early as 1816 a Lieutenant Baker and a Dr Quarrier supplied the Leander frigate, fitting out from Woolwich, with a library of several hundred books. Mrs Elizabeth Fry later persuaded the Admiralty to issue libraries to naval hospitals and to the coastguard.